Chapter 10

"S-s-hin?" Ji Won repeated, before averting her eyes. He was looking at her so intently that she felt the heat rise within her. She quickly took her hand back and looked at both men. How the hell did this happen?

Jin Mo couldn't help but notice the tension between them. "Shin ah, you already know her?"

Ji Won took another glance at her folder and then back at them again. "Y-your name is Shin?" She took a deep breath to calm her nerves. Why was she stammering like an idiot? "Were you brought to the right table? I'm supposed to be meeting Yoon Pil Suh and Jo Jin Mo."

"That's us!" Jin Mo said cheerfully.

Shin was irritated by the look of despair on her face. Wasn't she the one who'd bailed on him? Why did she look like a trapped animal trying to find the closest escape route?

"Why don't we sit?" Jin Mo suggested. The poor woman looked like she barely had any energy left to keep standing. He glanced at Shin and saw that he too was in a state of shock. It was one of those rare moments he regretted being unable to read minds.

"Yes, let's sit," Ji Won said before doing just that. She gulped down the cold glass of water hoping that the temperature would awaken her from this nightmare but when she put down the empty glass, she still found both men looking at her.

"You're Yoon Pil Suh, right?" she asked —no, begged—the shorter man. If there was any justice in this world, he just had to be. Of all the women in the world who had one night stands and flings with strange men, why would she have to be the one forced to work with him? Didn't she deserve a break?

Jin Mo started to shake his head when Shin said, "Yes. He's Pil Suh and I'm Jin Mo."

The older man's eyes darted to him then to Ji Won who was looking visibly relieved.

She smiled then pointed at the chairs, urging the men to sit then did the same. She took a deep breath then pasted her 'editor smile' back on her face. Yes, she had to remember why she was meeting them in the first place. She drummed her fingers over the folder on the table. "I'm still working on the first chapter but I already love your story," she said, leaning forward and smiling.

Shin looked away in disgust. Anyone looking at those lightly lined bright eyes wouldn't know that behind them lay a cold, heartless bit.ch. Someone who could easily sleep with a man and ditch him like he was yesterday's newspaper. Someone who wasn't even decent enough to leave a note so that the poor hapless man wouldn't be caught naked by strange women or make him wander around the hotel and later around Aruba, searching for her, sure that he hadn't imagined their connection and that she really hadn't only thought of him as a hit-and-run.

But there she was, her hair falling carelessly against her face, a slight dimple threatening to develop on her left cheek, smiling and talking to Jin Mo, looking sexy in dark jeans and a white shirt. Bit.ch.

"So this must be quite a project for you," he said, interrupting her mid-sentence.

She turned to him like it was a huge feat. She'd been trying to find a way of ignoring him while looking professional and in the last minute or so, she'd thought she'd found it. Not because she had anything against him and simply because she was embarrassed. Because the whole time she was talking to Jin Mo, she'd been reliving moments of sitting on a stranger, crying, with a condom wrapper in her hand. Looking at him brought back memories she'd long since buried. "Yes, it's a privilege working with Mr. Yoon," she said, glancing warmly at the other man.

"I'm surprised you were picked for this, though. Are you related to your boss?"

Ji Won blinked rapidly and Shin almost laughed out loud. Was he getting to her?

"What do you mean?"

Jin Mo shot him a warning look but he ignored it. "I'm just saying," he began moving his hands for emphasis, "that it's a bit surprising that someone with your level of experience was given the chance to work on a project of this caliber. You must be aware of Mr. Yoon's stature in the writing world."

Ji Won felt her chest tightening but she took a deep breath to calm herself down. She wasn't going to let him piss her off. What happened to the nice guy she'd met in Aruba? The guy who'd made her last days memorable? The guy who hadn't judged her even at her lowest point? Was he a completely fabrication? Just like his stupid name? "As you might be aware, some of my previous works have become bestsellers."

He nodded knowingly. "Yeah. Two cookbooks, one travel guide and one self-help book. It's hardly the same thing."

Ji Won sat there speechlessly and would probably have remained so for the rest of the night if the real Jin Mo hadn't suddenly decided that he needed to give them a few minutes to duke it out and announced that he was leaving for the restroom.

As soon as he was out of earshot, Shin gave her a very obvious once-over and said, "I see you're looking healthy. The food in Seoul must be so much better than in Shanghai. Alex, much did you gain? Five pounds? Six pounds?"

"Fu.ck you."

He nodded. "Yeah, you certainly did that, didn't you? You found a sucker, had a lot of fun and disappeared."

"Fun?" she repeated spitefully. "Just because I clenched my vagina and screamed doesn't mean I actually had any fun. So don't flatter yourself."

Shin would probably have fired back if it hadn't stung so much. And it lasted for the whole night with him not saying much and letting Jin Mo dominate the conversation and agree to terms 'Pil Suh' would have to work under.



***



"Shin ah, when you see a pretty woman, you're supposed to turn her on and not off," Jin Mo said wearily as they walked to their cars.

"And that's what I'll do when I see one," he snapped back. He was still angry and getting angrier with every passing moment.

The older man burst out laughing. "But what exactly is going on? First you're rude then you stop talking entirely. Where did you guys meet?

"Forget about it. It's a long, boring story that isn't worth re-telling," he replied, fishing his car keys from his pocket.

"Hmm… okay. But since you've decided to pretend to be me, I hope you're not expecting me to work on the edits myself. I hope you don't really expect me to spend the whole of tomorrow afternoon moving words around and arguing about which sentences I need to expand on and all that bulls.hit."

Shin laughed. "And to think that you started off as a writer. Working with editors is part of the package."

"A part I detest, which probably explains why my one and only novel has sold a grand total of 100 copies in the last 10 years."

"99 of which I bought as punishment for losing a bet," he teased.

Jin Mo slapped his back and laughed. They'd been together ever since Shin's second release and had developed an honest and mutually respectful relationship in the process. "So what are we going to do about Miss. Na? How will you fix this? And do you think you'll be able to work with her? "

Shin nodded. "Don't worry. I'll figure something out."



***



"Are you always so punctual?"

The deep voice permeated Ji Won's daydream and shook her out of it rather violently.

"Ah," Shin said, making an exaggerated nervous face. "You scare easily too," he commented, pulling the chair across from hers then sitting in it.

She dropped the pen in her hand and groaned. "What are you doing here?" Didn't prayers work?

"I should be asking you the same thing." He made a show of looking at his watch. "You're fifteen minutes early."

"Early for what? We didn't have plans."

"3pm at the Starbucks across from the Galleria?"

"I didn't make those plans with you. Is your name Yoon Pil Suh?" she flung at him.

Yes. "So you were ditched on your wedding day?" It was time to change subjects, anyway.

Ji Won was so shocked by the question that her mouth remained open for a few seconds. "Wh-wh-w…?"

He leaned forward, rested his elbows on the table and put his hands together. "I did some digging on you." He shrugged. "You must have known that I'd do that. So was that your honeymoon? You were on your honeymoon alone?" Even though he wasn't showing it, discovering that had made her appear far less vile and a little courageous both of which made her quite intriguing. Now, he really wanted to hear her sob story and why she'd felt the need to go on a trip that would probably only serve to make her more miserable. He leaned in closer. "Come on, tell me about it."


Ji Won stood up abruptly, the loud sound of the chair scraping against the hard floor attracted attention from the other patrons. "Where's your client?"

Shin leaned back and looked away from her. "Sit down."

She slung her handbag over her shoulder and moved two steps closer to him. She'd already had her fill of this guy. "Tell your client to call me when he's ready to see me." She took a glance at the folder on the table and decided to leave it there. If their work relationship was about to end, he might as well keep his client's manuscript.

Just as she was about to walk away, he said, "He's not coming."

"How professional of him. If he doesn't want to work with me, he should just understand –"

Shin stood up and noticed that her forehead wasn't at his eye-level and quickly glanced at her feet. Oh. She wasn't wearing heels. Even without the added height, she was still tall for a woman but being almost able to see the top of her head suddenly made him feel like he had twice as much testosterone… till he remembered her comment about clenching and returned back to earth.

"Miss Na, please sit down. Let me explain."

She wanted to leave but as a professional, even if her writer's agent was an arrogant sonofabit.ch, she still had to work with him. She placed her purse on the table and went back to her seat. "Is something wrong with your client?"

Shin tried to figure out which look would work best – the emotional, apologetic agent or the stonehearted agent who only saw his clients as Won bills. He was still pondering this when Ji Won repeated her question.

"He's in rehab."

For the second time in less than ten minutes, she was stunned. "What did you just say?"

"I said that he's in rehab."

"Rehab as in some cool, new writers' workshop where he's giving a lecture on transitions and word choice?" she asked hopefully.

"No. Rehab as in the place where drug addicts, drunks and a whole bunch of other abusers go to try to build a better life… or escape a jail sentence."

Ji Won looked down and shook her head. She just couldn't get her head around it. There was no way that sweet, talented, good-natured man was an addict. She looked up at Shin. Yeah, she'd have no problems believing that he was some kind of substance abuser, but Pil Suh? "Sex addict, perhaps?"

Shin couldn't help but burst into laughter. She was just too cute in her disbelief. She was acting like a young girl who was trying to figure out if she's really overheard that the Tooth Fairy didn't exist.

She frowned then glared at him. "What's so funny?"

He looked away and tried to get himself together. But her unnecessarily serious face wasn't helping matters. He bit his lip and tried to keep a straight face. "He's in rehab because he has a drug problem – he's had it for years. He's had it tough, you know."

She nodded. From the little of his memoir she'd read, she could imagine that he was right. "What happened? Is he going to be alright?"

She looked so worried that he felt a little guilty about lying to her. "It's only for 30 days and it wasn't a court-order so you shouldn't worry about him having any legal troubles. He just slipped up a little and wants to get it all out of his system. He's really trying hard to kick his habit and so far he's been doing pretty well."

"I wish him luck," she said, nodding. "But the book… what do we do about it? Is it getting delayed? My boss can probably find something else for me to do in the meantime so yeah, don't worry about me – I am not inconvenienced. Right now, the main priority is for him to get well. Please send him my wishes."

Shin was touched by her reaction, surprised that she was so willing to accommodate someone she barely even knew. He looked away and went into the second half of his plan. "Well, the thing is the publisher has refused to move the deadline because the wheels have already been put in motion with publicity and they've already started talking to the printers. It's hilarious because the story hasn't been written but they already have a release date. But I'm sure you know that's standard practice."

Ji Won nodded. "So where does that leave us?"

"Luckily, writing has always been part of Pil Suh's…," he paused and tried his best not to make a face. To him, there was nothing more pretentious than talking about one's self in third person. "Pil Suh definitely wants to keep writing," he continued, "and we've spoken to his doctors and agreed that I should act as a liaison between you guys. I'm pretty much the only person allowed to see him because they understand that it's strictly business and they are familiar with me so he'll write the chapters and I'll bring them to you. And then you can give me the rewrites and I'll send them back to him." He stretched his hand out. "I believe you have some edits for me."

She took the folder off the table and held it close to her body.

Shin tried his best not to notice that the brown folder was now rubbing against a part of her anatomy that he'd once pushed lace off and nibbled. He sucked in some air and looked away. Okay, so maybe he was about to play a dangerous game he wasn't quite ready for. There was no reason he should be having sexual thoughts about a woman who'd discarded him so carelessly – never mind her reasons.

Before learning of her abortive wedding, he'd spent the night tossing and turning, trying not to relive his last few days in Aruba. He'd simply gone there to unwind and relax before writing his next book. Instead, he'd met an obviously troubled woman he'd grown to care about in a short while. Even though he knew she'd been lying to him, he'd thought that they'd clicked and had intended to propose that they remained in touch – even if it was only as friends. But waking up to the sight of two strange women frowning at him, and finally accepting what she'd done to him had made him question his judgment and ability to read people. And that scared him because he thought he was long past trusting people who only used him for their own selfish gain.

But maybe meeting her again was a chance to right this wrong. Maybe he'd been given the opportunity to give their story an alternate ending. One where he'd do the leaving and she'd be the idiot. And if he could get some work done in the process, why not? He was still lost in thought when he looked across and saw her pink, full lips pursed at him questioningly.

"What?" he asked, his voice far too shaky for any human who hoped to be referred to as a man.

"Did you suddenly drift off to another planet?"

He sat up. "What are you talking about?" He ran his fingers through his hair and looked at her.

She shrugged and shook her head. "I don't know."

"Yeah, obviously," he snapped back.

"Okay," she said, standing up. "I guess it's time for me to leave."

As she began to walk off, he quickly caught her hand. A hand with fingers that had once dug into his.... What is wrong with me? He immediately took his hand off and looked away. Why am I acting like a girl?


Ji Won raised her brow. What was wrong with him?

"I need the edits," he said simply.

She sighed and took a step back so that she could see his face clearly. "I don't think this arrangement is going to work for me." The thought of seeing him so often didn't bode too well with her. Yeah, he looked sexy in the gray shirt that had three buttons sleazily undone, thankfully without a gold chain hanging down, but he was still an ass.hole. "I can just email the edits to him."

"But last night, didn't you say that you preferred to work with hardcopies?"

She hadn't even realized that he'd been paying attention. "Yeah, but we obviously have to make adjustments here and I am willing to do that."

"He's not allowed email access in rehab."

"How about sending it by courier service?"

Luckily, he'd expected to hear that suggestion. "No one is allowed to receive packages there. What if someone tries to slip contraband in with what appears to be a manuscript? What if someone sends a letter bomb or something just as dangerous?"

She rolled her eyes. Letter bomb? she scoffed to herself. How dramatic.

"As I already explained, I am the only one allowed contact with him because they trust me, so you're going to have to work through me."

She dropped the folder in front of him and sat back down. So was she really stuck in this impossible situation? Or maybe she could talk to her boss about dropping the project.

"We probably should come up with a schedule to make it easier for all of us." He pulled out his Blackberry. "What days are good for you?"